To our friends and partners in the Gospel,
It is a new year and with it comes many new opportunities for our God to do a new thing on campus at Penn. This past semester saw the creation of a new Christian journal at Penn, Locust Walk, and we are excited to see many of our students take on roles as writers and staff to bring this space for dialogue to the campus.
Christian Union faculty were asked to provide a prayer for the first print edition which will come out this spring. We ask you to join us in prayer for this publication and the opportunities for the good news of Jesus Christ to be proclaimed and defended on campus with intellectual rigor and spiritual fervor.
Oh Lord our God,
The Apostle John said that during Jesus’ limited time walking the earth, he did many things well such that not even the whole world would contain the books that would be written (John 21:25). May we with joy and pleasure to continue the attempt, filling up books and journals such as this with the good work that Jesus continues to do in our world.
The heavens declare the glory of God and each day gushes forth with the majesty of your creation (Psalm 19). May we as creators after the image of the Creator never cease to speak and write about what we have seen and heard Jesus do and continue to do in our midst (Acts 4:20).
Even the works of creation are but the outer fringes of your works and ways, how faint a whisper we hear of you (Job 26:14)! May these pages join with the rocks (Habakkuk 2:11) to cry out from the rooftops and proclaim from the mountains what Jesus has shown us of you, our Father’s, love for us and the manifold acts of kindness given to us.
Our eyes stream forth tears flow because your law is not obeyed (Psalm 119:136). May you have mercy on those who read these pages who are wrestling with what it means to live among a people of unclean lips (Isaiah 6:5) in light of the perfect example of Christ; may these words help us look to Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith (Hebrews 12:2).
Many of us have made no mention of you and are weary, like a fire shut up in our bones, of holding it in (Jeremiah 20:9). May this “scroll of remembrance” encourage those who fear the Lord to talk with each other and speak of the things of the Lord; be pleased to listen and hear (Malachi 3:16).
In our times of weakness we are futile of our minds and darkened in our understanding (Ephesians 4:18). May these words give us strength to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge and escapes description even with our best, most eloquent words (Ephesians 3:18-19).
We often settle for lights of our own fabrication and temples of our own imagination. May you show us that the future of the return of Jesus has broken in now and that by the complete work of Christ your Spirit dwells in we who are your people, your priests, your special possession (1 Peter 2:9).
Encourage us in these words, by your Spirit unto the sure hope of Christ, our King, our Savior, and the Savior of all peoples and nations. May we not believe merely on account of these words written by others, but that we have seen and experienced for ourselves, and we know that Jesus is indeed the Savior of the world (John 4:42).
Amen
Though much of the campus might be aligned against the name of Jesus, we know that through your prayer to our sovereign lord on our behalf will help us to “demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God” and to “make every thought obedient to Christ” (2 Corinthians 10:5).
Justin Mills
Christian Union Ministry Director
University of Pennsylvania
Please note: if you would like to receive regular updates on how to pray for Christian Union's work at University of Pennsylvania, please email prayer@christianunion.org.
